The Role of SMS Marketing Software in Building Customer Loyalty for Small Businesses

Are you running a small business? Do you often find yourself struggling with your marketing?

If you answered yes to both questions, you’re not alone.

There’s a wealth of competition and noise already on various platforms. To cut through this noise, you’ll have to select your channels wisely to get a good return on your marketing spend. And one channel that small business owners sleep on a lot, unfortunately, is SMS.

Studies show that American consumers exchanged 2 trillion messages with a 98% open rate. This shows how important the SMS channel is for consumers.

Thus, if you’re not marketing through SMS, consider starting soon. To do that, you’ll need SMS Marketing Software like Textdrip that allows you the freedom to automate and have 1-on-1 conversations with your customers. Here are the top features to look out for:

Top 5 SMS Marketing Software Features for Small Businesses

Knowing the power of SMS marketing starts with understanding what you can do with it. Here, I’ve prepared a list of top features of SMS marketing tools and how to use them to boost your small business’ sales and results.

• Contact Management:

Reliable text message marketing for small businesses depends highly on having a robust contact management system. SMS marketing tools can help you with that as they often include a way to import and organize contact lists.

You can also use them to segment and group contacts based on various criteria, such as demographics, purchase history, or engagement levels. Moreover, the best SMS tools will provide automation and alerts to ensure you have accurate and up-to-date contact information.

• Message Personalization

Being able to personalize SMS messages is crucial for effective marketing and SMS tools can help you with that too. A great SMS tool will allow you to dynamically insert customer names, purchase details, or other relevant information into your messages.

Personalized messages create a more engaging and tailored experience for recipients.

Who wouldn’t love reading a message that feels tailor-fit for them? Tapping into that ability could help improve your engagement and conversion rates.

• Automation and Scheduling

Nowadays, automation abounds through the power of technology. They help you do more with less effort so you can focus on growing your business. Automation streamlines your marketing campaigns, especially if you’re doing SMS automation .

I recommend you use a tool like Textdrip that help you set up automated triggers and workflows based on customer actions or predefined conditions. To maximize their impact, you can also use scheduling options to plan and send messages at specific times or dates.

• Analytics and Reporting

Effective SMS marketing requires the ability to track and measure campaign performance. Many great SMS marketing tools give reporting features for metrics like message delivery rates, open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates.

Having an analytics and reporting dashboard in your system can help you track SMS marketing success metrics and adjust accordingly to maximize results. Further, such insights help you assess your campaigns' effectiveness and make data-driven optimization decisions.

• Integration Capabilities

SMS tools also integrate with other systems or platforms that are important to your business. This includes CRM systems, e-commerce platforms, or email marketing tools.

These connections to other apps allow for seamless data exchange, automating processes, and creating a unified customer experience across multiple channels.

5 Ways to Use SMS Marketing to Build Customer Loyalty

Now the question is how can you build customer loyalty using SMS marketing apps? Here are some great ideas to get you started:

Provide Exclusive Offers and Discounts

Many people love getting deals, especially when delivered through a communication channel as accessible as SMS. You can send messages to your loyal customers with exclusive offers, discounts, or promotions.

This tactic makes existing customers and hot leads feel appreciated and rewarded for their loyalty and engagement. Provide a special discount code and add a limited-time offer to create a sense of urgency and scarcity. This strategy will encourage your past customers to continue engaging with your brand.

Send Personalized Messages

You can also use SMS marketing to establish a more personal and direct line of communication with your customers. Ensure you address them by name and send personalized messages based on their past purchases or preferences. Make your messages sound as conversational as possible, and keep them short and sweet.

For example, if customers frequently buy a particular product, you can send them SMS notifications about new releases or related items related to that product. Personalization can be a powerful way to enhance the customer support experience. It fosters a sense of connection and loyalty through a very familiar channel.

Loyalty Program Updates

Keep your customers informed about their loyalty program status, points balance, or rewards. However, doing so via email can be hard sometimes as some notifications easily fall through the cracks and land in spam folders, unless you take the time and ensure your email domain meets DMARC compliance.

To fortify your communications around loyalty programs, try sending SMS notifications when customers reach certain milestones, earn rewards, or when close to unlocking a new tier. These kinds of messages appear less sale-sy and give people the sense that they’re gaining something from your communications.

Surveys and Feedback Requests

SMS marketing should be a two-way street. If you listen to what your customers have to say, they are more likely to trust you and become loyal over time. Use your SMS marketing software to gather valuable feedback from your loyal customers.

You can send short surveys or feedback requests via SMS. Try to understand their preferences and satisfaction levels and ask for areas of improvement. When you do this, you make customers feel involved in the decision-making process.

It also demonstrates that you value their opinions. Act on their feedback, make improvements, and inform them about the changes when possible.

Event and Product Launch Invitations

If you have upcoming events, product launches, or special promotions, notify your customers via SMS. Make them feel like they’re the first to know about VIP and exclusive events or have early access to new products. This is a great way to build meaningful and memorable experiences with your brand that will strengthen the relationship in the long term.

SMS could really come in handy to real estate agents when they want to send open house invitations or new product listings. Users can reply instantly and book a meeting or schedule an appointment with them.

Using SMS and Email Marketing Software

Often people ask me “Should we use SMS or email marketing software? Which one’s better?”

Well, there’s no reason that you shouldn’t include both in your marketing strategy. When coupled together, email and SMS marketing software can help immensely strengthen your marketing efforts.

You can use the best email marketing solutions alongside great SMS marketing tools to communicate your messages or build an omnichannel strategy that delights customers.

Empower Customer Loyalty with SMS Marketing Tool

One might think that SMS is invasive and annoying, but that’s not always true. In fact, 41% of people would love to receive brand updates through text.

That said, having the best SMS software like Textdrip could be a really big advantage for your company. Text message marketing is a powerful way to connect with leads and customers so that you can delight and engage them repeatedly and make them your brand loyalist.

Planning to integrate the SMS tool into your marketing strategy? Contact us to know more about how Textdrip can help you generate more leads, close more sales, and build customer loyalty.